


Trust

by Wallwalker



Series: Our Haven [12]
Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Gen, Pre-Canon, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-08
Updated: 2015-08-08
Packaged: 2018-04-13 13:35:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4524009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wallwalker/pseuds/Wallwalker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tifa finally finds someone who'll have her back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trust

Tifa had been quite the mountain climber when she'd been younger, much to her father's disapproval. After her mother died, she'd take every chance she could to explore the mountains, even after her fall. She'd fallen because of a bridge that couldn't bear her weight, after all; if she learned not to need the bridges, and could travel without them, she'd be fine. Rocks were sturdier, anyway. (She learned quickly that she wasn't always right, but by then she'd managed to get her hands on some better safety equipment, so when the rock crumbled under her feet she didn't fall too far - just enough to frighten her, to make her remember.) 

She had to be careful, after all. She couldn't always rely on anyone being there to catch her if she fell, so she'd have to learn to catch herself. That was why she'd insisted on taking lessons in martial arts, too - she had to learn to fight for herself, because she didn't know for sure if anyone would fight beside her. 

When she ended up at Midgar, she'd thought that it would be more true than ever. If she wasn't careful, she'd end up dead, right? The slums were a dangerous place, and she was lucky she could take care of herself. So she struck out on her own, and she did all right, for a while. It was a lonely life, and she spent a lot of it keeping an eye out for the Shinra guards and gritting her teeth against the urge to punch the more obnoxious ones in the throat, but she survived.

Then she'd met AVALANCHE by sheer accident - she'd been in Sector 7 at the wrong time, she supposed. She hadn't thought much of them at first; they'd seemed too disorganized to take seriously. Their leader, Barret, was too angry, and the other two were too young and careless. And what kind of revolutionaries let a little girl tag along with them?

But she was curious and did some digging, and once she'd found out who they were and what they believed in, she had decided to join them; she'd rather fight than keep her head down for the rest of her life. But she'd gotten careless. It didn't happen right away, but after a few skirmishes, she'd made a mistake. 

She remembered it vividly; she should've seen that the metal in the access tunnel was under too much strain. She should've noticed it before she'd tried to run across it, before it gave way under her feet. There had been a drop below her, at least twenty feet. It should've hurt her badly, if not killed her outright. But then she'd felt a jolt, and something had pulled her back - and then she'd been standing there, terrified but safe, watching the platform crash below.

"Dammit! You okay?" It was Barret, the rag-tag team's leader, who'd grabbed her and pulled her back. She nodded, tried to say something else, but the words didn't come fast enough. "There's another way back up," he said. "C'mon, follow me!" 

They ran into one of the other tunnels, Tifa hot on Barret's heels, running from the guards that were looking for them. The place was old and dark, full of cobwebs, but they kept going until they were back on ground level again, somewhere in a sector she'd never visited.

They had to lay low for a while; the trains wouldn't be safe until the heat died down. But it wasn't too hard to find a place to lay low in the slums. People didn't care where anyone else slept, as long as they didn't steal from anyone else. It was when they were trying to catch some sleep in an old drain that she finally spoke up. "Hey, Barret?"

"Hm?" He'd been curled up in a blanket he'd scavenged. It barely covered his broad shoulders, let alone the rest of him. "What's up?"

She didn't know how to say it, so she closed her eyes and let it come out quickly. "Why'd you catch me?" 

He'd given her a funny look, like she'd told him she could read minds, or something. "Why wouldn't I?" he'd finally answered. 

"We barely know each other, for one," she said, looking away.

"Yeah, well, you're fighting with us. I ain't letting nobody who I'm leading fall down if I can help it." He smiled a bit. "You feel me?"

"...yes," she said. "I think so. And, um, thanks."

"Don't mention it," he said, trying again and failing to get everything under the blanket. At least Tifa was having a little more luck with the one she'd found. "Let's get some sleep. We'll scope out the tunnels tomorrow and get back to Sector 7, make sure thatthe others got out safe. They were ahead of us, so let's hope they stayed that way."

Tifa nodded and turned away, curling up under the blanket. It was the first time in a long time that she'd thought that someone else had her back, even if she made a misstep. She was going to be all right. 

She couldn't be careless, though. Someday, she might be the one who could catch them when they fell, and she wanted to be ready.


End file.
